The Northeast Times won eight Keystone Press Awards in a contest sponsored by the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.
Sports editor Joe Mason won four awards. He took first place in Sports Event Coverage for a story on Abraham Lincoln High School’s first football playoff victory since 1989.
Mason won second-place awards for stories on Frankford football player Esky Lopez breaking the team record for receiving yards in a year and Mark Heimerdinger achieving his 500th victory while coaching boys basketball at Fels and Cardinal Dougherty.
In the Sports Beat Reporting category, he won an honorable mention award for stories on Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Eddie Alvarez.
Managing editor Melissa Yerkov won two first-place awards, in the Headline Writing and Front Page Design categories.
The winning headlines were Imagination Station (about Tacony’s new library and arts building), Photo finish (Ott’s camera shop closes after 68 years) and The Doctor is in (celebrations of the birthday of Dr. Seuss at Kennedy Crossan Elementary School and Torresdale Library).
The front pages recognized were stories on Alvarez winning the UFC title and the 15th Police District unveiling its bicycle squad, along with a new comic book shop opening.
Photo editor Maria Young won two awards, including first place in the Sports Photo category for a picture of boxer John Joe Nevin, an Olympic silver medalist from Ireland who fights out of Harrowgate Boxing Club.
Young won an honorable mention award for a picture taken last summer at the Republican City Committee clambake at Cannstatter’s. The picture showed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie taking a selfie with a woman before going on stage to urge the crowd to support Donald Trump for president.
The Times competes in Division V, for weekly newspapers with circulations more than 10,000.
The awards were announced last week.
The winners will be honored at the Keystone Press Awards Banquet during the Pennsylvania Press Conference on May 20 at the Lancaster Marriott. ••
